still not a good conversationalist, but at least we've got a footer

[thanate]

Appalling carnage next door continues, and I continue to be good for nothing at all but fretting over stuff. Also, the new web host had unspecified service issues which included my e-mail being out most of the day; they claim they were pooling the messages, but they appear to be letting them out of the pool one drop at a time. The oak... well, the cement truck rolled heavily over the ground about two feet from the trunk. This is not good. Also, Warren keeps trying to offer to smooth over the grade of the backyard; I need to explain to him how oak roots work, and that NOBODY IS DAMN WELL TOUCHING the parts of the yard that haven't already been severely compacted, particularly to drop more dirt on top of the poor tree. Yes, it looks fine today. Come back in three years and tell me you haven't done any harm. Also, I like my terrain the way it is. But anyway, we have a footer, and as my website is back up to host them, I can give you pictures.

Monday:




Tuesday:


(grauwulf mourns the demise of his stair railing. Also, note the complete lack of vegetation below 15 ft on the other side of the fence.)

and the hole itself:


This afternoon:


At the far left of the picture, you can kind of see the line in the sidewall of the hole where the clay suddenly goes from being dark to being much lighter (under the backfill which has dried out, so you may just see a dark line next to the concrete); this is where the concrete pad at the bottom of the steps left off, and it's pretty noticeable. No, that area didn't get any of the 9" of rain everywhere else got.


...Other than that, I've been reading the Saga of the People of Laxardal out of the Icelandic Sagas book I picked up almost a decade ago off a Borders sale table, and it's quite fascinating. Drama, disturbing dead people, lots of women, and much voyaging about amongst Iceland & Norway & Ireland. Although when you come to the third Thord in the same paragraph, it can get a bit confusing. Unrelatedly, I have packed up the dolls in the steamer trunk that houses all their stuff (ok, all but Boston, who is still on my desk) so they can't fall off things when people start messing with the roofline. No pictures, sorry. :(

Also, I picked up some storebrand pumpernickel at shoprite, not expecting much, and it's really quite good. So, that's nice. And you should watch this video of a song with the singer dancing with John/Don Kenn monsters. Pretty cool.

Comments

[notyourwendy]

I just finished reading Grettir's Saga and it was hilarious. But seriously, on one page (I really should post this to LJ) I counted about eight different names that were a derivative of Thor and two different Auduns (Odin).

[thanate]

Oh yes, or there's stuff tossed into the middle of the narrative like: "Aesgir had five children: one of his sons was Audun, the father of Aesgir, the father of Audun, the father of Egil who was married to Ulfheid, the daughter of Eyjolf the Lame. Their son was Eyjolf, who was killed at the Althing." (The Aesgir appearing in our story, by the way, is called "Scatter-brain.")

I finally got around to reading the book because of a pennsic class about the inn Draugar (walking dead), which was also fascinating.

[notyourwendy]

The Vikings seem to be very fond of Sir Not Appearing in This Story.

Trade you for Thorgeir Poem-Stump.

[thanate]

That's a good one.

I'm more or less on board with the idea that they're doing the chronicling thing and making sure everybody's neighbor's ancestor gets mentioned, but since I haven't been any of these places, it does make it very difficult to keep track of who has done what when you get back to the main players again...

[notyourwendy]

They hit this odd point in my head - they're a little bit fantasy because the customs/situations are so different to what I know, but they're also a little bit history because of the importance the author puts on places and names. I find I have to just take it on faith that it'll get back around to the main characters eventually, once all the Sir Not Appearing In This Story and Female Relations get listed and cleared out of the way.

[thanate]

Maybe I'm more up on this sort of thing, having actually studied various ancient writings and the bible in a historical/scholarly sense (mostly new testament, but there's all sorts of weird research to be learned about the other stuff going on at the time) but that structure didn't seem weird to me; it's just very much a "ok, I'm not the audience for this bit" sort of disassociation.